Faucet



April 3, 1934. w. L. THAETE ET AL HUGE! Filed July 21. 1933 duommwPatented Apr. 3, 1934 FAUCET William L. Thaete and Emelia J. Thaete,Denver, 0010.

Application July 21, 1933, Serial No. 681,624

1 Claim. (Cl. 251-46).

This invention relates to improvements in valve stem and the sealingdevice and shows the faucets and has reference more particularly to anmanner of attaching the latter to the valve stem; improved sealingdevice that can be substituted Fig. 3 is a section through a differentform of for the usual fiber or leather washer now extenvalve showing thesame provided with a sealing sively employed. device constructed inaccordance with this in- 60 It has been found from experience that theorvention; dinary faucets employing the usual type of sealing Fig. 4 isa plan view of the sealing surface of washer does not maintain a perfectseal for any the sealing device shown in Fig. 3; and length of time dueprimarily to the fact that the Fig. is a view showing the seal ngsurface of in sealing washer is affected by the water to such an thevalvle1 member ithis: cooperates with the sealing (35 extent that itsoftens and begins to disintegrate, device s own in F g. thereby makingit impossible to obtain and main- In thle drlziwlng1refeligntceinugileral 1 rlepcresentstain a perfect seal. the va ve ous gw c s e usua ype o It is the object of this invention to produce ahousing for ordinary faucets. This housing is sealing device that shallbe made of a material provided with a bonnet 2 that has a threaded 70that will not be affected by the action of the waopening 3 and has anintake opening 4 in one end her. such, for example, as stainless steel,and andanoutlet openin 5 the other end. The 1nwhich shall be so designedthat it can be aptake an? oiglet openings arretsleptafatecli blyalpartiplied to the ordinary faucet without making it tionfit a asanope ng asex 9. ya igne necessary to change the valve seat or any of thewitliltheagiaening indtihe blolnnet. ilhequaper edge 7 other parts ofthe faucet. of t e w surroun ng e open ng orms e Another object of thisinvention is to produce a valve seat 8. Mounted for rotation in opening3 sealing device that shall be so constructed and is a valve stem 9whose lower end is provided with so applied or attached to the valvestem that it an enlarged head 10 whose lower surface lies in can rockwith respect to the latter. thereby pera plane perpendicular to the axisof the valve mitting the sealing surface to conform to the tem- A t dOpening 11 extends i t valve seat so as to produce a perfect sealbetween valve stem and is adapted to receive a screw 12 the two metalsurfaces. even though the surface by means of which the sealing device13 is secured of the valve seat does not lie in a plane perpenlo thevalve stem. This sesllng device is prefer- 30 dlcular to the axis of thevalve stem. ably made from stainless s eel but can be made Anotherobject of this invention is to produce a from my other metal that 18 notaffected by th a sealing device that shall be so constructed that actionof the water or ther fluid for the control it can be movably attached tothe end of a valve which the faucet is employed The Sealing Stem bymeans of a screw and which Shall be device is of a peculiar constructionand the sur- 7 provided with means for closing the opening so as ggs ggzgggs z ggh gfi 3 5;g i g gs izrsgevent leakage between the member andthe reference numer a1 14. surface 14 y be spherical or conical, as theconvexity is intended Another obsect of gg is g g i merely to permit thesealing device to rock on the a Scaling device that 5M1 so commune t endof the valve stem. The lower surface of the after the valve has beenopened the now of sealing device. which has been indicated by referterwill be controlled by means of a tapered plug ence numeral 15 ispreferably spherical, but any projecting mm the Valve opening and inthis other suitable convex surface may be employed. manner a bettercontrol of the flow obtained. An opening 3 extends through the sealingdevice The above and other objects that may become and the lower end ofthis opening is enlarged apparent as this description proceeds are atsoas to receive the head of a screw by means of m n y m n 0! a n cti a nBrwhich the device is secured to the valve stem. rangemcnt of parts thatwill now be described in The enlarged opening has threaded sides for thedetail, and for this purpose reference will be had reception of a plug1'7 that serves to close the 50 to the accompanying drawing in which thepreopening against the admission of water and to ferred embodiment ofthe invention has been prevent leaks about the screw. The plug 1'! isillustrated, and in which: preferably tapered and may be somewhat largerFig. 1 is a section through a faucet provided in diameter than indicatedon the drawing and it with our improved sealing means; will thereforetend to restrict the flow of water to Fig. 2 is a section through thelower end of the the opening 7 after the valve has been -wrd so as 1 tomore perfectly control the flow. The spherical surface 15 is adapted tofit the round opening 7 and to form a seal at this point. Since theopening 7 is not always perfectly aligned with the opening in thebonnet, it is necessary that the sealing device shall be permitted tomove relative to the valve stem so that it may adapt itself to the valveseat, and for this purpose the surface of the sealing device in contactwith the valve stem is made convex and the securing means comprising thescrew holds the sealing device movably connected with the valve stem.The spherical surface 13 has been shown as having a large degree ofcurvature or in other words, a short radius of curvature, but the exactcurvature is immaterial and should be selected so as to get the bestresults. The particular shape of sealing device shown and described isadapLed for sealing devices made from stainless steel or other hardmetal and it is obvious that it would have little advantage if thesealing devices were made of rubber, leather or fiber or any othersimilar material that yields under pressure, and the particular shape istherefore believed to be of great importance in connection with metalsealing devices that depend for their sealing action on making a perfectfit instead of conforming to irregularities by yielding.

In soda fountains and other places, a slightly different form of valveis used and in Fig. 3 one of this type of valves has been shown in amore or less diagrammatic manner. Numeral 1B represents a metal bodyhaving a recess for the reception of a treated leather valve member 19.This member is preferably made in the shape of a polygon as shown inFig. 5 and is provided with three openings which have been numbered 21,22 and 23. Member 18 is provided with three openings that correspond inposition with the openings in member 19 and opening 21 is incommunication with a pipe 24 that forms the discharge portion of-thevalve. Openings 22 and 23 are connected respectively with water underpressure and liquid carbonic acid gas or with any other two fluids underpressure. Cooperating with the member 19 is a sealing device 25 that ispreferably made of stainless steel and has its back surface 26 convex.The other surface is preferably fiat and cooperates with the surface ofmember 19. The sealing device 25 is located in a valve cup 27 thatcorresponds to the valve stem in Fig. 1. This cup is provided with a pin28 that cooperates with an opening in member 25 for the purpose ofpreventing relative rotation between these two parts. A handle 29 isconnected with the member 27 and serves as a means for rotating thesame. The sealing device 25 is provided with a central opening 30 andwith another opening 31 that is spaced radially from opening 30 adistance equal to the distances from the center of opening 21 to thecenter of openings 22 and 23. Openings 30 and 31 are connected by adiagonal opening 32. When the two members 25 and 19 are held inassembled relation as shown in Fig. 3, it is evident that opening 30will always be in alignment with opening 21 and when member 25 isrotated so as to bring opening 31 into communication with either of theopenings 22 or 23, liquid can flow through the valve, but if opening 23is in any other posit-ion, the valve will be closed. It is thereforeevident that a valve like that shown in Fig. 3 can be used forcontrolling the flow from several different sources, and discharging allof the different sources through a single pipe. The

construction of valve just described is old, but

the valve device 25 has heretofore been made from hard rubber and hasnot had a convex surface and such sealing devices have been found towear unevenly with the result that leakage soon develops. Bysubstituting for the rubber sealing device a steel sealing device havinga convex back, the wear will not be so great and if either of themembers 25 or 19 wear unevenly, member 25 can rock in the cup 27 so asto maintain even contact pressure at all points and the valve willtherefore remain tight where otherwise the wear would be suflicient tocause leakage.

From the above description it will be seen that the sealing device thatforms the subject of this invention has a convex back surface that isadapted to fit against a flat supporting surface and to be securedthereto by means that permits the device to rock and in this manner aperfect seal can be obtained between surfaces that would otherwise notcome into sufficient close contact to form a good seal.

Having described the invention what we claim as new is:

In a valve having a valve seat and a valve stem with a flat end which ismovable towards and away from the valve seat. a sealing devicecomprising a substantially circular metal member having its two oppositesides convex and of different curvature, the member having a centralopening for the reception of a screw for securing it to the flat end ofthe valve stem. the opening being formed from two sections of differentdiameters. the section of the greater diameter being on the side ofgreater curvature and adapted to receive the head of the screw. the wallof the larger opening being threaded, and a plug threaded in theopening. the outerrend of the plug being conical and adapted to form aretarding device, the side of lesser curvature being located against theflat end of the valve stem.

WILLIAM L. 'Il-IAETE. EMELIA J. 'IHAETE.

